Sam Shepard

Sam Shepard is an actor as well as a playwright. In this excerpt of his interview, he notes that, while he does not readily come up with a narrative voice, he does readily hear the voices of a number of characters. Perhaps plays rather than novels are a more natural way to go with such a predisposition.

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INTERVIEWER

Did it take a long time to find your particular voice as a writer?

SHEPARD

I was amazed, actually. I’ve heard writers talk about “discovering a voice,” but for me that wasn’t a problem. There were so many voices that I didn’t know where to start. It was splendid, really; I felt kind of like a weird stenographer. I don’t mean to make it sound like hallucination, but there were definitely things there, and I was just putting them down. I was fascinated by how they structured themselves, and it seemed like the natural place to do it was on a stage. A lot of the time when writers talk about their voice they’re talking about a narrative voice. For some reason my attempts at narrative turned out really weird. I didn’t have that kind of voice, but I had a lot of other ones, so I thought, Well, I’ll follow those.

INTERVIEWER

Do you feel like you’re in control of those voices now?

SHEPARD

I don’t feel insane, if that’s what you’re asking.

-- Sam Shepard at The Paris Review

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1790s Alexander Hamilton

While Hamilton was suffering through his sex scandal, his wife’s sister, Angelica, wrote a letter of consolation to her, from which we get this excerpt. Of course, Hamilton’s sexual affair had to be strongly mortifying to her.

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Tranquilize your kind and good heart, my dear Eliza, for I have the most positive assurance from Mr. Church that the dirty fellow who has caused us all some uneasiness and wounded your feelings, my dear love, is effectually silenced. Merit, virtue, and talents must have enemies and [are] always exposed to envy so that, my Eliza, you see the penalties attending the position of so amiable a man. All this you would not have suffered if you had married into a family less near the sun. But then [you would have missed] the pride, the pleasure, the nameless satisfactions.

-- Angelica Church

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One question I suppose we will never know is whether Hamilton and Angelica ever got it on betwixt the sheets. Both seemed to be very passionate creatures, and they were obviously very fond of each other, but maybe they did not have the heart to take the chance and risk hurting their family.

[Source: Ron Chernow, “Alexander Hamilton”]

Friday Night

It had been a long time since I had Cheetos. I was getting so tired of Doritos. I am a creature of habit, but sometimes I do need to shake things up a little bit, particularly when it comes to my menu. The Cheetos were a bit fun, but I am all too aware that it is only another flavor of barely edible garbage.

Pop, on the other hand, is having a more adventurous Friday night. He is taking Ronny to that Hunter Hayes concert. I am a little surprised that Ronny is not going by himself. Pop said he is too young, which does not sound right, as I think he must be about eighteen already, and then it occurs to me that Pop is a little embarrassed about having a special grandfather-grandson event, as though I might feel jealous. Hayes is not really Pop's sort of country music, being a little too contemporary and rock and roll, a little far off the path of Ray Price and Willie Nelson and blue eyes crying in the rain, but I am sure it will be a nice time. It is not heavy metal or grunge rock, and there probably won't be a lot of marijuana in the air.